From Before (Abondoned, Being Redone)
by RunEmJewelsFast
Summary: The precursors that came before the Inklings and Octarians were supposed to have gone extinct long ago.. right? Not quite. The race known as "humans" had contingencies set in place to prepare. Now, 12,000 years later, an Octoling archaeologist meets a living, breathing precursor. She wants his knowledge. He wants to adjust. Talk about a one of a kind discovery.
1. Prologue

Prologue

A Reawakening

 **I'm all over the place with my writing, since I only ever upload chapters roughly once every 2-4 months and they are usually short one shots. This one is a bit more niche, inspired by the Splatoon franchise and its lore. Specifically, the stories where humans reawaken to a world populated by sentient, evolved squids and octopi. It could make for great sci-if if it wasn't already centered around a game primarily marketed at people under 18.**

 **Notes: This story is going to be heavily influenced by stories such as "The Legacy of Humanity", "The Thin Ice of Cephalopod Politics", and "S2: Remainder". As such, it'll be a fairly typical "human[s] awake[s] from cryostasis in the distant future and meet the new sentient species" story. The events of the story will more than likely take place during and/or after the main story of the second game, and the Octo Expansion DLC will have little to no importance. However, I will continually reference real world songs, games and movies because I want a big focus of this story to be on my human character or characters introducing more of their pop culture to the Inklings and Octarians.**

 **Anyways, here we go...**

—

 **Humanity**

 **The Near Future**

Some of humanity had tried its best to prepare an ark for the upcoming flood, while some tried to prevent it altogether. Ultimately, it was the former group that had been in the right.

Rising sea levels and escalating tensions between the few first world countries to remain led to some of those countries initiating programs to prepare for the downfall of most of who was left. Most countries with enough political power quickly gathered up as many resources as they could afford, bringing together their best and brightest. Together, each nation tried to find a solution that could ensure that a small part of humanity could survive.

It was almost unanimously agreed upon that space was the best option. Every large nation had believed that since there would soon be no more landmass on Earth, they could only take to the stars.

Except for one, of course.

The leader of this particular country was an unconventional person, and said person had brought along his smartest and argued that humanity could stay on Earth, locked in a comatose, freezing state, while Mother Nature took a detox and recovered from the damage inflicted upon it by humans. This leader, when he was shot down and generally ignored, elected by to go his own route as well as the route of the rest of the world.

This was why, one day, a few months from that meeting, roughly ten thousand of the world's smartest, strongest, most capable boarded a spaceship and took off for the stars and an eventual destination, with supplies that would last for centuries and some of humanity's best artistic, military, and practical work on board. However at the same time, a couple hundred members of that one particular country would stay behind.

These men and women had been chosen to remain in cryostasis on Earth for millennia, while the Earth healed itself. Then, when the time came, one man or woman would be awakened before the rest. This lucky (or unlucky) person would be tasked with scouting out the new world around him or her, making sure that it would be safe to inhabit and establishing contact with new sentient species if there were any. Then they would awaken the rest of the chosen group, and said group would start to adjust to their new circumstances.

The person selected for the job would have to be smart, strong and competent. Most importantly, they would need to know a lot about human culture. Unfortunately for them, they wouldn't know that they were picked for the job until after they exited cryo.

This is why, although he didn't expect himself to be the first man to awake in the future, 22-year-old Nathan Eastbrook was unsurprised when he found out he was handpicked to do just that.

Damn you, Murphy's Law.

—

 **The Octarian Empire**

 **The Distant Future**

One of the minor advantages that the Octarians have over Inklings is that they were better at conserving power.

This was a necessity, since the Inklings had a tendency to hoard the main source of electricity for both races. The Zapfish were the only source of power they could find, and since the Inklings held the majority of those (the great Zapfish included), the Octarian Empire was in the midst of a fairly nasty power crisis. With the former ruler DJ Octavio's planned theft of the Zapfish thwarted nearly two years ago, he had been labeled a terrorist by some of the Inklings that had stopped him. Morale had been very low in the short time since, with most of the once mighty Octarians struggling to maintain their nation.

This is where the current Queen had stepped in. Formerly one of Octavio's most efficient generals, she had managed to round up the majority of the remaining military forces and convince them that their Empire would be better off if Octavio wasn't in charge. She had then staged a wildly successful _coup d'etat,_ taking the throne away from the arrogant king.

Her new citizens were surprisingly okay with it, all things considered. She had half expected them to revolt against her because she was an Octoling, and Octolings were usually considered more aggressive and less capable of decision making. However, since Octavio had failed to resolve the power crisis and instead elected to make horrid music (in the Queen's opinion), she figured that if she could find a way to solve the power problem, she would be able to win these people over.

Thankfully, she had a possible solution. She planned on going old school.

She had sent out a few expeditions to see if they could find any technology belonging to the precursors that had come before them as a species, despite what was said by her advisors. They argued that the precursors weren't all that smart, since they had effectively killed themselves off. She went against them anyways.

Her gambit absolutely paid off. One of her teams had struck the jackpot by coming across a massive site just outside of Octo Valley, and a good distance from Inkopolis as well. The thing that had interested her immediately was the flashing lights that had been discovered.

The precursors could make power without the Zapfish, so of course she put the best she had on site. Her best people would bring the best results, and they would leave little to chance. She had predicted that, if all went well, they would have their own power within a little under a year.

But Queen Retvi of the Octarian Empire could not predict a precursor showing up alive and well.

—

 **The Octarian Expedition**

 **Near The Site of the Precursors**

 **Just Outside Octo Valley.**

While the queen was somewhat optimistic about the prospects of the expedition, the head archeologist on the expedition was getting increasingly frustrated with her coworkers. To say the least, a certain Persephone Eldoris was soon going to have a very difficult time controlling her anger if they kept at it.

Persephone was one of the few Octolings in the Octarian Empire that avoided a career in the military. Since Octolings possessed greater physical strength than standard Octarians (and a mean streak to boot), it was extremely rare for Octolings to continue their originally chosen careers upon transforming into one. Instead, they were usually given hardcore training and they then became soldiers. Persephone was an exception to this rule.

Although Persephone was a tall, imposing figure, even among Octolings, she considered her brain to be her singular greatest asset. When she was still an Octarian, she had been fascinated by the idea of the species that had come before hers. She had wanted to know more about how they had lived their lives, and while both Inklings and Octarians had recovered a few pieces of tech that had belonged to them (often referred to as "precursors", of course), Persephone had believed that they had only scratched the surface. That fascination and belief held steadfast even after her "evolution".

This find that she was working on was supposed to be the biggest collection of materials created by the precursors ever found, and somehow the Inklings had no idea they were missing it. Persephone could have been far more excited about if she wasn't in the midst of being harassed by her Octarian coworkers.

See, these coworkers of hers were not used to working with a full blown Octoling, and they had decided to annoy her due to her sub-species. She was frequently distracted and taken away from her work by some of the ruder Octarians on the scene, and they would frequently ask her to help them with some form of manual labor since Octolings possessed a lot of physical strength. She had needed to continuously remind them that she was actually the brains behind their operation, and she eventually took to threatening them as well.

So here Persephone was a few hours later, striding through a complex, that strangely, had lit up as soon as she had walked in with her entourage. And while their job was to salvage what they could, she couldn't help it as her anger led to childish glee at the thought of what they could possibly find. Obviously, however, their main goal was to obtain some sort of power source, since the precursors were able to harness power without Zapfish.

(That fact, to Persephone, proved that the previous species was far smarter than most gave them credit for, since neither Inklings nor Octarians had figured out how to do that yet.)

But nonetheless, the materials they had come across, while not a permanent solution, could sustain the Octarians' energy needs for a good couple of years. The search party had concluded that their search, for today at least, was a resounding success, and they would return tomorrow.

However, as they were setting themselves up to leave, an unknown noise blared throughout the building. It almost sounded... musical.

Persephone and her search party had no clue about what they were in for.

—

 **So, this is the prologue. As someone who doesn't play the games often, I'd like to think I did a pretty decent job.**

 **I wanted to send most of the remaining humans off to space to explain why so few would be present and to do a little world building as well. I more than likely will keep Nathan as the only human awake for a good while, and most of the other humans will be unimportant in comparison.**

 **There we be three main perspectives for these early chapters: I will mainly alternate between Nathan (human OC) and Persephone (Octoling OC), and I will occasionally use the Queen's P.O.V. as well. Eventually, the Squid Sisters and Off The Hook will make their own appearances as well. Again, this story is heavily influenced by titles such as "The Thin Ice Of Cephalopod Politics" and "The Sins of Humanity". Queen Retvi is actually the same queen from the former story, so shoutout to Hydraliskenmaster for a great story and a solid character. I don't own Splatoon or Nintendo. I only own my OCs.**

 **Next Up: Persephone's search party meets Nathan and they struggle to make first impressions while Joey Bada$$'s "For My People" plays in the background.**


	2. Chapter One: For My People

Chapter One

For My People

 **Notes for this chapter:**

 **I know I could probably do a better job describing the complex that the humans are in cryostasis in. In my mind, I pictured something similar to STAR Labs from the Flash TV show, with the cryostasis pods functioning like a way more humane version of the Pipeline. Other floors hold amenities, like a residential area for awakened humans, an athletic center (with a swimming pool, of course) and a massive library packed with books, vinyl music, and archived blueprints and drawings. There was also a floor for food storage, and a tech center, with computers, gaming consoles and more music, this time stored online.**

 **Also, after this chapter, the next couple of chapters will come at a much slower rate, since school is picking up the pace and extracurriculars are about to begin.**

—

"Welcome to the future." = Speech

" _Welcome to the future."_ = Thought

 _Welcome to the future._ = Music

 **With Nathan**

 _This for my people_

 _Trying to stay alive and just stay peaceful_

 _So hard to survive a world so lethal_

 _Who will take a stand and be our hero_

 _For my people, yeah..._

The first thing Nathan Eastbrook experienced after he was put in cryostasis was the song he had asked to hear when he was to wake up. Slowly, he began to feel his senses return to him as he began to get used to his surroundings, and the music played in the background.

Without really thinking, he began to stretch, since his muscles felt incredibly tight from his forced coma. Standing at a solid six foot one and weighing a little under two hundred pounds, Nathan liked to think of himself as one of the better physical specimens of the people that went into cryo. The blue jumpsuit he had been issued still fit his tanned form perfectly, like it had when he was forced into a coma. " _That's a good thing, too,"_ he mused internally, " _I'm glad to see I didn't mutate into anything."_

He chuckled and took a few minutes more to iron out the kinks in his bones and muscles, before the reality of his situation hit him like a star linebacker.

Most of humanity, he remembered, was dead. A few thousand people had gone off into space while he and a few hundred others, himself included, had been forced to stay unconscious for who knows how long. Nathan quickly felt his throat begin to grow somewhat dry as a single thought crossed through his head.

" _Oh my lord, this is actually real."_

After taking a few more moments to let that reality set in further, he spoke aloud, seemingly to no one in particular. "Was I the first one to awake?" he asked anxiously, taking his time stretching out his jumpsuit clad frame. A bright, mechanical voice quickly answered over a speaker, taking the young man by surprise.

"Good evening, Mr. Eastbrook. To answer your question, yes, you are the first member of your group to wake up. I was the one to awaken you."

The human stood there and blinked, trying to process the new information given to him. Apparently, the scientists working on the project had also made an A.I. to guide the people once they had awoken from their very long slumber. Seeing as Nathan had paused and chosen not to respond, the A.I. in question continued speaking.

"My name is Athena", she said. "I was created by one of the leading members of the artificial intelligence community for the purpose of helping you integrate yourself into the new world. I regulate the conditions in this building so they remain stable, and I also know about some of the outside world as well. You, Mr. Eastbrook, were selected to be the first person to awake from cryostasis by the president himself."

That was a sentence Nathan did not want to hear. He had been the dude elected to scout out the outside world and see if it was livable in. He had been the dude elected to make first contact with new sentient species, and establish that humans weren't going to be hostile to them. It was, admittedly, an intimidating task.

But it was one he would need to start sooner instead of later.

"Ok, Athena. I need to know about the outside world, and then I need to know the ins and outs of this facility."

—

It took a good while, but eventually, Nathan had managed to get himself up to speed on the current state of affairs. Apparently Athena, in the time since she had been awakened (which was a long time ago), had gained the ability to feel emotion. The first emotion she had learned to feel was loneliness, and she threw herself into learning as much as she could to avoid that feeling. Awakwening Nathan had made her feel like she had had company for the first time in ages (outside of the beings crawling through the middle floors right now, though they didn't know about her). She was glad to tell Nathan everything he wanted to know, and she gleefully answered his questions.

For starters, it had been a little under twelve millennia since his group had been put into cryo, and Earth had done a pretty good job of recovering. While the water had become quite polluted, many other environmental aspects greatly improved. The global temperatures had lowered, the hole in the ozone layer was almost completely repaired, and the sea levels had dropped by a good margin. Also, two new sentient species had evolved in that time frame and they had taken heavy inspiration from humanity.

One species evolved from squids, and they had taken to calling themselves Inklings. Another had evolved from octopi and aptly called themselves Octarians, with their own sub-species called Octolings. Apparently the two races had gone to war a while back, weaponizing the ink they made to fight over a power source, electricity-producing fish known as the Zapfish. The Inklings had emerged victorious, and the Octarian Empire had had trouble producing power ever since.

" _As the old saying goes, to the victor goes the spoils,"_ Nathan thought bitterly. While the Inklings had won the war fair and square, they had still managed to effectively doom an entire race of sentient beings to a struggle while they lived in luxury, looking down upon the Octarians. Meanwhile, the Inklings' main sport was basically a war simulation with two teams of four during it out to see who could cover the most battlefield in their team's color. At least the Inklings didn't wage war at random like some of humanity once did.

That couldn't quite be said for the Octarians, who had apparently elected to steal all the Zapfish a couple years back. Their leader at the time was brash, power hungry and overconfident, really bad traits for a leader to have.

Plus he made horrible house music instead of, you know, trying to lead his people. No wonder some special Inkling force (Squidbeak Platoon or something?) had managed to defeat him and recover that power source. The new Queen was probably far more competent.

At the end of his history lesson, Nathan had drawn a couple conclusions. The first and foremost conclusion was that the two races would probably have a better time coexisting if the Octarians had a consistent power source. Unfortunately, while the archives in the cryo facility probably had blueprints for many power sources (solar was probably a good choice, considering the Octarian population wasn't nearly as high as humanity's once was), he wasn't an engineer. He was a fighter and a negotiator if need be. That was what he had been trained to do.

The second conclusion he came to was that it would be a while before Athena, the A.I., could wake up any more humans. She said it was a minor bug in her system that she would work out eventually, but for now he was on his own.

The third and final conclusion had to do with the first. Perhaps, Nathan reasoned, if he could make a good first impression, he would be able to ally with either the Inklings or the Octarians and help the two races coexist while inserting his own into the mix.

"Thank you for getting me up to speed, Athena," Nathan tried his best to be polite while his mind raced. "For now, I need a couple of things. I would like some new clothes, something to eat, and maybe a weapon, just in case. I assume you know where those are, right?"

"Of course, Mr. Eastbrook. I can give you directions if need be."

"Lead the way, Athena. And please, call me Nathan. You don't need to be so formal."

—

 **With Persephone**

Now, Persephone had advocated for leaving and coming back later and more well equipped when the strange, musical sounding noise had gone off at first. However, the few colleagues she had gone in with had disagreed, meaning that she had been outvoted. And as the leading expert in precursors, she was going to be obligated to make sure her three companions stayed safe.

This was how Persephone found herself slowly striding up a few flights of metal stairs in front of three Octarians, who had elected to bring along weapons just in case. Somehow, the facility was still fully lit, which was simultaneously relieving and nerve wracking. It was made a little more nerve wracking by the fact the sound they had heard at first had turned into full blown music now, with the same noise repeating as a drum pattern played and deep, unintelligible speech could be heard, and some melodic singing could also be heard at intervals. It was strangely calm and minimalist to Persephone, but for reasons unknown, it invigorated her as well.

Eventually, as the music seemed to get louder (singnaling that they were getting closer), they reached the top of they staircase, and the music quieted and faded away. That left them in silence as the last member of their party reached the top of the stairs. The fact of the matter was that nobody really had any idea what was going on. They had been there for a while, so why would this facility choose now to act up? Plus, why play music of all things?

Persephone was the first to exit the staircase, emerging at the end of a long hallway. As she made her way forwards, the rest of her squad followed, weapons down for the moment. Every second seemed to stretch into ten as they wandered forward, guards up.

Then one of the doors opened, and... _something_ stepped out.

It wasn't looking at them yet, so Persephone had a few moments to make observations. For starters, it had a figure similar to an Octoling, but its head looked significantly smaller on its body. Its head was still the size of an Octoling's though, meaning it was _huge._ Persephone's head barely went to its chest, and she was still pretty tall for an Octoling. It was wearing one massive piece of blue clothing that covered the majority of its body. That stuff on its head looked like thousands of small, black tentacles. It was an incredibly intimidating figure, judging by her Octarian counterparts' stunned expressions. Persephone didn't blame them.

"Remain calm!" she quietly hissed at them. They needed to stay quiet.

That didn't work. The... _thing_ suddenly tensed and stood up straight, adding even more size to its already massive frame. It cocked its head in the direction away from them.

Then, it turned to the side and made eye contact with her.

" _Holy.."_

The thing was staring at her in awe, but without any signs of malice. He was probably surprised, but that didn't stop Persephone from making more observations about it. Like its facial features.

It had eyes, ears and a nose like any standard Inkling or Octoling. But what stunned her most was its teeth. " _So many teeth."_ There had to have been dozens of them. Their saving grace was that it (he?) was unarmed.

Persephone and the figure (she would need to determine a name for it) never stopped locking eyes as one of its arms rose towards its chin and stroked it. It's mouth moved, saying something in a language he couldn't recognize. She could only stare at him in awe.

That awe soon turned to horror. She was going to open her mouth to respond when one her cohorts gave a loud cry and began fired at the figure. Soon the other two joined in, coating the figure's body in purple ink. Persephone could only watch as one of her biggest dreams was shattered. With a loud cry, the figure stumbled backwards before hitting the floor, motionless.

—

 **So that's Chapter One. The song that played in the background was "For My People" by Joey Bada$$, hence the chapter's title. He's one of my favorite rappers and I think he's really underrated.**

 **So anyways, to summarize, in this chapter, Nathan awakes and learns the basics of the outside world and its recent history. I don't know if I chose to let him know a little too much, but if Athena had been around for a very long time (I would assume she was set to boot up about eight to ten centuries before she was able to wake Nathan), she would probably be able to learn about the environment, its species and their history with each other. Hell, as an advanced A.I. she's learned the language they speak too, and she'll try to teach it to Nathan as well.**

 **Nathan's main skills will be in fighting and negotiations, since he was the first human to awake. He would need to know how to fight to keep himself alive, and how to negotiate to establish good relations with the Inklings and Octarians. Obviously, since the facility he was placed in cryo in was located mainly underground just outside of Octo Valley, he will have to meet the Octarians first. And he has. He's been shot by a couple too.**

 **How'd I do? Do I need to go a bit more in depth on my characters, and flesh out their personalities a bit? Let me know.**

 **I don't own Splatoon or Nintendo, and I sincerely doubt that I'll have the rights to my OC's.**

 **Next Chapter: Nathan takes his revenge on the Octarians that invaded his home, and he gets to know the Octoling known as Persephone Eldoris. Thankfully, Athena knows how to translate.**


	3. Chapter Two: I Don't Die

Chapter Two

I Don't Die

 **Notes:**

 **From now on, I will refer to the building where humanity is kept in cryo as "Athena's Complex", since she has kept the place up and running for a very long time before Nathan woke up. For obvious reasons, it will be Nathan's home base, and a central point in the interactions between him and the outside world.**

"Better luck next time." = Speech

" _Better luck next time." = Thought_

 _Better luck next time = Music_

 **With Persephone**

Persephone was absolutely seething with rage, and it was directed entirely at her cohorts. Actually, Persephone didn't know if she had ever felt rage like the anger she was currently feeling. Lying in front of her was what looked to be a massive missed opportunity. The body of the precursor was still, and drenched in purple ink. It seemed that the excessive amounts of ink fired by her subordinates had killed it (Him. Probably a him, not that it mattered).

What a waste.

That being could have held so much knowledge inside of his brain. That being could have told them so much about the culture of his species. Plus, since they knew how to make power without the Zapfish, that being could have helped them solve the power crisis their whole nation was facing. Now it looked like that wasn't going to happen, because that being was dead. Her subordinates had foolishly decided to kill him, even though he had shown no aggression towards any of them.

So of course she was angry. These fools she called her subordinates may have killed off a solution to some of their biggest problems. So she was currently screaming her lungs out at them, for all of the reasons mentioned above.

"...and he didn't even TRY to attack us! He just stood there and, judging by the way he spoke, tried to say hello or something! Do you REALIZE how much we could have learned from him?" She yelled, effortlessly intimidating them. They didn't respond, instead staring ahead blankly, eyes wide.

"WELL?!" Their lack of a response angered her even further.

The first response she did get was for one of the Octarians to point a singular tentacle back behind her. Angrily, Persephone turned around only to have her jaw drop at the sight her eyes showed her.

"Impossible.."

Slowly but surely, the figure rose to his feet. Some of the ink had evaporated to a degree, but his body was still covered in it. He swung his arms around a little, letting some of the ink slip off of them. Then he ran his hands over his face, giving himself a clean viewpoint again before opening his eyes and turning to look at them. It didn't take a genius to tell that he was angry.

He pointed at her with one finger, barking a short order in his language. Persephone duly noted that he spoke with venom, even though she couldn't understand him. Then, he charged at the group, screaming. Persephone barely had time to jump out of the way as her cohorts nervously opened fire again.

This time, their shots barely slowed him down.

—

 **With Nathan**

Well, Nathan was going to try to take a friendly route towards all of them. Deep down, he knew that that would still be the best option. When he shakily rose to his feet, he had noticed the weaker Octarians (thank you, Athena, for the lesson) squirming, while the Octoling (probably the leader) stared at him in shock. He could only assume that they had thought he was dead. That they had killed him.

That thought made him lose his temper a little. These beings had come into his home (albeit one he knew little about) and tried to kill him on sight. The only exception was the Octoling, who had furiously been lecturing her subordinates about shooting at him. So she was going to be spared of his anger.

But since he didn't get a chance to try the friendly route, he was going to take the violent route instead. So, he abandoned his training, pointing at the Octoling and screaming "Move!" Then, he put his legs into motion and sped towards her and her cohorts.

The Octoling took his warning and hopped out of his way, leaving only the ones that had tried to murder him. They began to fire their ink weapons again, but this time he was prepared. He gritted his teeth, covered his eyes and kept advancing until he got close enough to disarm them, swatting their guns away. From there he made quick work of them. Considering that he had already scared them witless (his size probably helped) they pretty much stood by and let him knock them out. Anticlimactic, really.

Seeing as he taken out his anger management problems, he turned to his left, expecting to see the Octoling he had decided not to hurt. However, she wasn't there. Nathan tried looking around the hall for a few minutes, but he found nothing. It was made more difficult by the fact that he was still walking barefoot over slippery ink.

When he was about to call it quits, Athena decided to make herself known. "Uh, you do remember what I told you about their biology... right?" she asked. To Nathan, she almost seemed legitimately confused.

He smiled sheepishly, running a hand through his hair. "Well, they... evolved from octopi, right?"

He swore that he could hear her sigh softly before her response. "Yes, Nathan, they're called Octolings for a reason," she said sarcastically. "But they can also switch back and forth between their humanoid forms and an octopus-based form, so long as they swim in their ink and not water."

"So that means.."

"She's probably below you Nathan. You'll just have to convince her to come out."

Cue a raised eyebrow from the human. "And, pray tell, how would I do that? She scared out of her mind, and I can't speak Octoling.."

"No, but I can. I've tried to memorize their language for years now, since it helped as a distraction to my loneliness. Would you like me to try?"

"Yes, Athena. Thank you. You're a lifesaver."

"No need to thank me, Nathan. This could be quite crucial to ensure a good relationship between humans and Octarians after the stunt you just pulled. It is in my programming to keep you safe, and this may help."

With that, she began speaking a language that was almost entirely foreign to him, containing syllables he could probably learn and gurgling noises he would probably struggle with. It took her a few minutes, but eventually, the Octoling apprehensively popped up out of the ink. Nathan slowly walked up to her, trying to show that he meant no harm, before extending a hand. She stared at it for a few seconds before taking it in hers and saying a few words.

"She says her name is Persephone," Athena translated.

And a human and an Octoling shook hands for the first time.

—

 **One Hour Later**

 **With Nathan and Persephone**

Athena had led them a few floors down to a residential area, convincing them to make to make a few stops along the way. Persephone was absolutely fascinated by the building; her expedition had never made it this far down. When she asked Athena why, the A.I. told her that that had been her doing. She had planned on keeping the doors to lower areas locked until at least one human (specifically Nathan in this case) had been awakened from his slumber.

Actually, the very idea of an artificial intelligence was still something Persephone was still struggling to wrap her head around. The idea that the precursors (which Athena claimed called themselves "humans") could create a machine that sounded alive wasn't one that she had originally expected to think on when she had entered the building for the first time. Nevertheless, here it was. She had known that the humans were smart, but had never thought about its how smart they could be.

While she was holding a conversation with the feminine machine, Nathan chose to walk through the entrance to the room, clad in a new set of clothes and holding a pair of unfamiliar fruits. He tossed one to her and Persephone fumbled it around her hands for a moment before she took a bite. It was surprisingly sweet, and she actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Unfortunately, they didn't have food like it in the Octarian Empire.

As she enjoyed the fruit, Athena decided to give Persephone a status update on the Octarians that Nathan had knocked unconscious earlier. Apparently, Nathan had brought them downstairs and laid them to rest on a few makeshift beds, although he had taken away their weapons first. They were sleeping peacefully, according to her, and they would be free to go later.

That brought her attention to the next issue for the archeologist and the human. How would they explain his existence? He couldn't just leave the building and be like "what up y'all, not all the precursors are dead" and just expect everyone to be like "ok, cool". Somebody was going to target him eventually, and while Nathan had a general immunity to ink, he didn't think that meant he couldn't be killed. He needed to make a decent first impression, and that was made more difficult by the fact that he had beaten the snot out of three trained Octarian soldiers with minimal difficulty.

Persephone, in such a short time, had quickly warmed to the human. Outside of his aggression, which he claimed was a little out of character for him, he seemed to be a down to earth type of person. She had her skills in observation to thank for her good perception of him, otherwise she would still be cowering in fear. However, she had resolved in the time since that shaky first impression that she would try to help him out, both for his benefit and hers.

Athena had claimed that Nathan had a solution that could win over most of the Octarians without much of a problem, and Nathan had placed a few papers on the table that Persephone had been sitting by. The pictures were strange, and the text was written in Nathan's language, but Persephone had a vague idea of what these papers could be. She just needed confirmation.

"Athena, just what are these papers?"

"It's a good question, Persephone," Athena answered, her voice sounding somewhat excited. "You see, these blueprints contain the instructions for creating energy by turning sunlight into electric power. It's a fairly quick process if you have the right materials. Nathan here believes that he can gain a good reputation by helping you with your power problem, but he will need to learn your home before he just hands the solution over."

That was it. That was Nathan's "master plan". To win over the Octarian Empire, he was going to help solve their power crisis, and put some human culture on display for them while he was at it. He was going to show them the best humanity had to offer in terms of music, film, games, books, and so on. In return, he would get to learn as much as he could about the economy and the culture of the nations outside Athena's Complex. Then, when they realized that humans weren't a threat and accepted them, Nathan would be able to wake up the rest of the people trapped in cryo, and they could slowly integrate into the new world.

It was a very basic plan, and one with a lot of variables that could throw a wrench in it. But it was something that could work if they kept their cool and played it safe.

When Persephone and the Octarians that had gone with her left Athena's Complex, Nathan, trying to play the good host, showed them out. He even gave them their weapons back, against his better judgement. As they reunited with the rest of their expedition, Athena gave Nathan a timeframe to prepare.

"Persephone says that she you will have at least three days before you will see the outside world. That is how long the politicians will take to make some sort of decision on you. There will be a very good chance that you meet some sort of figure of authority. In the meantime, you will need to learn as much of the Oceanic language as possible, so you are not unprepared when you leave. After all, I will not be there to translate for you."

Nathan plopped down on a nearby couch, readied his mind and cracked his fingers.

It was time to get to work.

—

 **This wraps up Chapter Two. How'd I do? Is there anything I need to be more descriptive about? I welcome constructive feedback, since I want this story to turn out well.**

 **In the meantime I would like to make a few notes about my reasons for writing down what I've written. First off, the reason that there was minimal dialogue in that last scene was because I though it would be awkward and repetitive to have to write about Athena translating over and over. Secondly, I know I wasn't too terribly descriptive about the inside of Athena's Complex here. This is because I didn't really need to be. You, the reader, probably were able to figure out what it looked like for yourself. I only needed to focus on the events and the conversation between all the parties involved.**

 **Next Up: Nathan leaves Athena's Complex for the first time, meeting some important figures. A squad of Octolings take kindly to him.**


	4. Chapter Three: Caught Their Eyes

Chapter Three

Caught Their Eyes

 **Notes: I wanted to take some time evaluating and editing the next couple of chapters I have planned. Plus, schoolwork is really starting to take its toll as well, so there's that. Anyways, on with the show. In this chapter, Nathan steps outside Athena's Complex for the first time and I briefly mention where he was born. Plus, he gets to marvel at how the Octarians handle things. Wonderful.**

 **I definitely don't own Splatoon, y'all, and I don't own the lyrics mentioned.**

 **Five Days Later**

 **At Athena's Complex**

Nathan had been hard at work in the days since Persephone had left Athena's Complex. As a top notch linguist, he had been able to pick up the basics of the Oceanic language, and while he was far from fluent, he was able to speak broken Oceanic and get his point across. Studying the language for hours on end everyday had most definitely helped, to where stray words and phrases in Oceanic would float around in his head late at night. Plus, he had gotten five days instead of three to work with.

Persephone had also made sure to drop by for a few minutes each day. She would help him hone his Oceanic, and give him an update on what her superiors were thinking about him. He needed the intel pretty badly, and in return, he gave her something small from Athena's Complex. While it was normally something taken for granted in human culture, like an old novel or a photograph of a historic landmark, Persephone ate it all up. He supposed the knowledge he was giving her was why she was so ecstatic.

Speaking of which, there was an absolutely ridiculous amount of random things lying around in the annals of the Complex. Thankfully, this included a lot of styles of clothing, of which Nathan would browse sometimes. He would need them for what was coming; Persephone had showed up yesterday and said that the Queen of the Octarian Empire wanted to see him, so he needed to make preparations.

" _Damn, word spreads quickly,"_ he thought briefly. Less than a week since his awakening and he was already meeting royalty.

Currently, Nathan was doing his best to make himself look presentable, but also prepared in case someone attacked him. He was currently trying to decide between tactical gear and a more classy outfit, since both options had their advantages. Obviously, tactical gear would be more beneficial in case a fight broke out while he was out there. A stylistic choice would mean that he could make a better first impression in terms of appearance. If a fight broke out in that outfit, though, he would be more easily spotted and shot at.

He needed to take a moment before he realized something important. "Oh, wait... You'll be easily spotted anyway," he said aloud. "You're the only human that will be out there, in a world that's not yours. Phenomenal. You don't really need to make a choice, do you?" he deadpanned.

In the end, he went with a casual outfit choice, going with a maroon long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and combat boots. Next, he needed to take some sort of weapon along with him, just in case shots were fired at him. A pair of small weapons seemed ideal, so in the end, he elected to go with a pair of handguns, one high caliber pistol to deal damage if necessary and a Dazzler, which could stun enemies by emitting a huge flash of light, temporarily blinding them. Just to ensure his eyes didn't get damaged (those are important, after all), he also took along a pair of military goggles. Gotta keep your vision intact, after all. He stuffed the weapons and the blueprints for power in a backpack before throwing it over his shoulders.

As he walked towards the entrance, the deep voice of Jay Electronica blared over a set of earbuds he had found in the lower floors of the Complex a couple days ago. Over a soul sample and piano keys, it sounded almost like Jay was telling Nathan a lyrical autobiography of his life. With little time left before he was set to leave, Nathan calmed himself by listening to the song's closing lines, letting Jay's words invade his head as he nodded along.

 _...I'm bringing ancient mathematics back to modern man_

 _My mama told me, 'never throw a stone and hide your hand'_

 _I got a lot of family, you got a lot of fans  
That's why the people got my back like the Verizon man_

 _I play the back and fade to black, and then devise a plan_

 _Out in London, smokin', vibin' while I ride the tram_

 _Giving out that raw food to lions disguised as lambs_

 _And, by the time they get their seats hot  
And deploy all they henchmen to come at me from the treetops_

 _I'm chillin' out at Tweetstock, building by the millions_

 _My light is brilliant..._

As the drums stopped, the piano keys faded and the song came to an end, Athena spoke up, telling Nathan that the moment of truth was upon him. "Persephone is waiting right outside, with eight Octoling soldiers flanking her. I strongly suggest that you keep your weapons away from their sight, and leave the building slowly, with your hands up. This is it, Nathan. Are you ready?"

In broken Octarian, Nathan answered, "Ready as ever."

Then, he opened a door out and took his first steps into the outside world.

—

 **Outside the Complex**

 **With Persephone**

When the other members of the expedition found out that Persephone had met a living precursor, well, it was definitely not the first thing they expected to hear. Far from it. When they heard about how he got up from something that definitely should have killed him, they panicked a bit. When the soldiers spoke about how terrified they had been fighting him (their take on things was greatly exaggerated, Persephone thought), that panic had reached a crescendo. The decision was made to let the higher-ups know straight away.

" _In hindsight"_ , Persephone thought, " _I probably should have expected my coworkers to freak out a bit."_ However, they had elected to freak out more than just a little, calling in a squad of highly trained Octoling soldiers just in case the precursor decided to try anything dangerous. "His name is Nathan!" Persephone had said multiple times, but no, they decided that it was better to consider him a dangerous animal than a sentient being.

Sadly, not all of the Inklings were much better with them.

This was how she had found herself standing with the aforementioned set of Octoling troopers, who each had multiple weapons on themselves. Some held ink (which didn't make a lot of sense, since Nathan had shrugged it off) and some held water (a high risk move), but all of them were absolutely strapped with things designed to harm and kill. Persephone, by contrast, was unarmed, only holding some sort of handheld loudspeaker. She had argued that Nathan would appreciate something that was even a little familiar to him. She had only met him once, for a few hours, but she had taken a liking to him, albeit in a friendly yet professional way. She thought he knew what he talked about, and he was normally calm and collected.

Snapping out of her internal musings, Persephone raised the microphone to her mouth and spoke. "Attention, precursor!" She shouted out in Oceanic, hoping that he would hear her. "We know that you are currently inside this building. We would like to request that you come outside immediately, on the orders of the Octarian Queen Retvi."

Yes, the order had come from the Queen herself. Apparently she wanted to meet Nathan. While Persephone was glad he could present his plans to royalty, she knew that she would probably need to join him, and the idea gave her a headache. Apparently the Queen could be very temperamental.

"If you do not comply within twenty minutes' time, the soldiers with me will have no choice but to storm the building with water-based weapons," she continued. "Now, I don't know about you, but water is generally considered really deadly to us. This will be your only warning."

Only a few minutes later, the large door they were standing in front of slowly opened, and Persephone could see Nathan, clothed casually and wearing weird headgear that covered his eyes and a wire that split into both of his ears. Something was on his back, and his hands were covered as well.

Slowly, he walked over to Persephone and the squad of Octolings, making sure to make no sudden moves. His hands also remained above his head, in the universal symbol for "I mean no harm, please don't shoot". Strangely, he was smiling at them, which put the group off a little.

Slowly, he pulled the headgear off of his eyes, letting it fall to his neck. When he spoke, it was not very well articulated, with a deep voice and a thick accent that was distinctly human. "Sorry, Oceanic is very bad," he said, slowly, "I only had few days to learn language. Had to make use of time."

This made the hardened exterior of her surrounding Octolings drop a little bit, giving way to curiosity and awe. One of them actually said the words "he can speak" aloud. Slowly, those Octolings (six females and two males, Persephone noted) began to break away from their characters and start peppering him with questions.

"Hi, my name is Kailani! What's yours?"

"What did your species call themselves?"

"Did they have any cool weapons?"

"Why are you wearing that wire?"

As the questions became more quickly and quickly paced, Persephone had to suppress a sigh. If she had to accompany Nathan around (and she probably would), then it was going to be a long day.

—

 **A Few Hours Later**

 **The Heart of the Octarian Empire**

 **With Nathan**

The Octarian Empire, Nathan had decided, needed serious work. He had come to that conclusion pretty quickly while being escorted through their capital.

It was rather unfortunate, as the people showed serious promise and were very efficient, but as a whole, they just didn't have much. Even though it still seemed alien to him, the whole Empire reminded him of the inner cities in his former hometown of Detroit.

Nathan had seen the inner cities of that town and they were far from pretty. Like the current state of the street he was walking down, some of the smartest, friendliest people that he had ever met were from the city's underbelly. Unfortunately, they were bogged down by rampant crime, poverty and vice. In contrast, the Octarian Empire's issues boiled down to one thing: power. The Queen had done a pretty good job keeping everything else in check.

Speaking of the Queen, one of the Octolings that had been sent to keep the expedition safe had informed him that the Queen had wanted to meet him as soon as she had heard about him. Granted, this had been after about twenty minutes of answering rapid fire questions from her and her squad mates, so it came as a welcome change of pace. He didn't know how long he could keep answering questions thrown at him.

So, after being checked for weapons (he had freely admitted to having two, to help gain trust), he was being led to the Queen's palace, where the squad of Octolings and Persephone would also meet the Queen. Some were excited, some were tense, and Persephone was unimpressed, which made Nathan raise his eyebrows and ask her why.

"This is Queen of your nation, right?" He questioned, internally hating his struggles with the language. He had studied a ridiculous amount of words in Oceanic, but he still was surprised that he was even able to comprehend and speak it. Didn't mean that he couldn't wish for better skills when he spoke. He probably sounded like a towering toddler, and he was being forced to use hand signals to compensate.

"Yeah, and?" Persephone's flippant response was still off-putting, even though he knew that she was unimpressed. Why wouldn't you be nervous about meeting the leader of your society?

Nathan wanted to voice these thoughts. "She is powerful person in your society. It is natural to have nerves when you meet someone with that power," he said, moving his hands around for emphasis.

"Well," Persephone said, sporting a cheeky grin, "I guess I'm just not all that intimidated."

That was unfortunately all the words they were able to exchange, as the squad of nine Octolings and one human had finally reached her Majesty's home. It was one of the grandest buildings that Nathan had seen yet, seeming absolutely massive despite lacking height. It seemed that buildings that housed important people hadn't gotten any less flamboyant since he'd gone under.

The party just stared at the building for a few minutes before one of the more excited Octolings (Nathan thought that he remembered her introducing herself) snapped them out of it.

"What are we waiting for, guys? We have a meeting to attend with the Queen herself! Let's not waste too much time!" She said excitedly, her small tentacles fluttering around her hair.

"Yes, let's go," Nathan agreed, trying to maintain his calm facade. "The Queen should not be kept waiting." Internally, he was sweating. This meeting could make or break humanity's chances.

—

 **The Queen's Throne Room**

 **With Retvi**

Heavens, she hated this throne. She hated the fact that it looked so fancy, with precious metals adorning it. She hated that the throne had a higher net worth than some of the people that worked at the palace. She wanted it gone.

Unfortunately, that was just a minor problem. She would get to that at a later date, once the big problems had been sorted out. For now, she needed to focus on the current task: a meeting with the Precursor. She had armed herself to be safe, since she knew he was armed. However, he had no motive to harm her, so that was low on her list of possible outcomes.

No, she wanted to know what he was like firsthand, whether or not he would be an ally to her and what he could teach them about his species. Maybe things would end well, maybe they wouldn't. She would find out when he arrived.

One of her guards entered the room and announced, "Your Majesty, they are here. What do you want me to do?"

She grinned widely in excitement. This meeting could go down in history.

"Send them in."

It was showtime.

—

 **So, uh, there's chapter three. Less than stellar, obviously. This fic just feels like it's missing something, but I'm unsure what.**

 **Anyways, Jay Electronica's "Exhibit C" is a real song, and one of my favorites. I've already established that Nathan is a hip-hop fan, so I've decided to build his tastes around my own. Plus hip-hop is fairly big in Inkopolis, considering Off the Hook is a rapper-producer duo similar to Eric B. & Rakim in real life.**

 **Also, the Dazzler is a real life weapon, albeit less advanced than the one I mentioned in this story. I figured that Nathan could have a weapon like that because he wouldn't want to kill someone yet. He wants to give humans a good reputation.**

 **Anyways, what did I miss? Does the pacing of the story need adjustments? Are the characters still too bland? Please let me know what I can improve.**


	5. Chapter Four: Ready Or Not

Chapter Four

Ready Or Not

 **A/N: Yeah, I'm back. These updates are getting more difficult, because I need time to figure out where I want the story to move from. Obviously, it's still similar to "Thin Ice", but I want it to take a slightly different path. Plus, school is still piling on, so it's harder to want to write.**

 **Anyways, in this chapter, Nathan finally meets the Queen, and we have our first real fight. Hope you enjoy.**

 **The Throne Room**

 **With Nathan, Retvi and Persephone**

Nathan felt the hairs on his neck prick up as he entered the throne room. It wasn't as extravagant as he had thought; despite being very large, it was also very minimalist. However, Nathan's mind wasn't really on drawing any conclusions just yet. Instead, he was paying attention to the woman at the end of the hallway he was currently striding down.

She sat on her throne, staring at them, and he could tell that she was staring at him in particular. It made sense. After all, she had probably seen many Octolings in her life, but he was new. He had to keep reminding himself of that: he was a stranger in a strange world. " _No pressure, Nathan. You just have to represent an entire sentient species to the leader of a different sentient species,"_ he thought, half comical, half cynical.

When he was within a couple body lengths of the Queen, he suddenly dropped to his knees, causing a couple Octolings to flinch back as she raised one

eyebrow (or is it an eye-tentacle? He didn't know). Then, he bowed to her. "Your Majesty", he spoke, his accent masking his voice a bit.

She waited a couple of seconds before letting out a sharp laugh. Nathan nearly flinched, being caught off guard by it, before relief replaced his nerves. "Rise, precursor", the Queen said, her voice oozing authority. "There's no need to be so formal. After all, I made you come see me in my home."

Nathan stood up from his awkward position, only to receive a sharp elbow from Persephone. Thankfully, it didn't hurt too much, since he was exponentially stronger than she was, but it did make him momentarily lose his balance. When he actually looked at her, he found her with her arms crossed, an _I told you so_ smirk plastered upon her face.

"Well, what did I tell you?" She asked smugly. "I told you that you weren't going to need to worry, that she would be fine with you. But you were all 'no, she's the most politically powerful member of your species. I have every right to be nervous'", she continued mocking him playfully, now that she knew she was in the right.

Sheepishly, Nathan's hand went to the back of his neck, and the tallest member of the group stumbled over his explanation. "Sorry, sorry... before we went under, we were to show respect to royalty. People would bow."

The Queen chuckled at the little interaction the two had. She definitely hadn't expected someone to bond with a precursor so quickly, but if anyone could do it, it was going to be Persephone. Retvi had heard about her enthusiasm for all things precursors had to offer, so meeting one that was alive had to be a dream come true for the archeologist.

The royalty in the room broke up their little interaction with a clap of her hands, making them both fall silent and turn to look at her. "As much as I want to watch you squabble like a married couple," she said, (making Nathan raise an eyebrow as some of the other Octolings laughed) "we should get down to business. Precursor, I'm going to have to interrogate you a bit. Please step forward."

Nathan took one long stride away from Persephone and the soldiers and maintained eye contact with the Queen. And good heavens, he was tense. Despite towering over her and possessing strength well above her, she radiated authority. Nathan knew he needed to have the "interrogation", as it was called, go well.

The Queen spoke first. "State your name and your occupation."

" _Ah, yes, a classic cross-examination, with the defendant on the stand,"_ Nathan thought. He had a leg up as a diplomat, but he was still going to struggle through this due to his accent and difficulties with the language.

"My name is Nathan Eastbrook, Your Majesty. I am a fighter and negotiator, and the only member of the humans not dead or in a coma."

That made the Queen flinch a little. " _It must be terrible to be the only member of your kind among the living. But I have to keep going."_

"And why, pray tell, are you not dead?"

"It's long story, Your Majesty. In effort to keep humans from fully dying, I, along with few hundred others, were put into a coma, and kept that way until we could wake without having to worry about dying. I was first one to wake up because, as a soldier, I could make sure that nothing would be a danger to the rest of us before we all woke."

"How long were you in a coma?"

With a straight face and a serious tone, Nathan dropped a big piece of info. "Twelve thousand years, Your Majesty, but I am really twenty two." Honestly, he was surprised that the cryo pods worked for that long. " _Oh, the miracles of ancient tech."_

This cross examination continued for a while in a similar manner, with the Queen asking him a variety of questions about himself and humans as a whole. Eventually, the Queen, seemingly satisfied with the new information she had, asked one final question. "What do you plan on doing to the Octarian Empire?"

This was the question Nathan had been waiting for. This was how he could win the Queen's favor. He was practically rubbing his hands in anticipation. So he put the first phase of that master plan into action.

"Your Majesty, I can tell you I won't hurt your kingdom. I want to make sure other humans are safe. To a degree, we will be able to support ourselves. But eventually, we will need someone to help us."

He took a moment to kneel down and open his backpack, pulling out the blueprints for a bunch of solar panels. Slowly, he walked up to the Queen and showed her the document, letting her look at it.

"Your Majesty, I only ask that, when the rest of the humans awake, you will be able to help them adjust to this new world. For the moment, I can give you these documents in return."

The Queen sat on her throne and ran her eyes over the picture. It was unfamiliar, and the text was foreign to her. "That is all well and good", she said, "but I have no idea what this depicts."

It was Persephone who answered, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

"That, my Queen, is the solution to our chronic power problem, and something the Inklings do not have."

The Queen's eyes widened. This was a major game changer. "You... humans", she said, rolling the word around in her mouth, "could make power without the Zapfish?" She asked. She had to, since it was an extremely unfamiliar notion. If they could really produce power like that and Nathan agreed to hand these plans over, it could change the future of the Octarian Empire as everyone knew it. They could finally put themselves on even footing with the Inklings. It was practically a solution that came from the heavens.

Nathan could guess what she was thinking, and he decided to snap her out of her stupor. "Yes, Your Majesty. We had many methods to do this. This one uses the energy that the sun gives off. It can store leftover energy for use at night while giving you power when the sun is out. The resource has no limit. But you will need your best engineers and construction workers to build these, and I won't give you these plans unless you agree to help humanity in the long run."

The Queen paused. While he was on her turf, the plans were in his language, so she couldn't figure them out unless he translated them for her. She couldn't quite force him to hand the plans over due to his strength, and even if she did they couldn't be used without him. He had more leverage than she did in this scenario, so she could only go along with it.

"You have a deal," she said, thinking that the power crisis had been solved. She moved to shake his hand when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

It was a splat bomb.

"Get down!" She screamed, her military training kicking in. She quickly ducked behind her throne as the bomb went off; thankfully, no one was critically injured. However, the bomb was only a distraction. Twenty Octarian troops stormed the throne room, and all hell broke loose.

—

The Octolings in the room scrambled for cover as they were ambushed, with different shades of pink ink quickly filling most of the room. Many of the Octolings took a small amount of damage from the initial volley, it was going to be an uphill battle. At least they had the strength advantage.

Nathan had taken cover behind some overturned furniture, along with a male Octoling appropriately named Marsh. " _What is it with water themed names nowadays?"_ He thought to himself, pulling his goggles over his eyes and taking a pistol out of his bag. He stood up and fired one shot. A loud crack rang through the room and the bullet fired hit an Octarian squarely between the eyes. Ink spurted out of his head and he dropped to the floor, lifeless.

Well, that was blunt. He had just killed a sentient being. It was a different feeling from what he was used to. Even though he had been trained to fight, simulations had nothing on real battles. It was disconcerting for the young soldier.

Even more off putting was the fact that hehad technically missed. Nathan had meant to aim for the chest, but he had instead hit the guy's head and killed him. He supposed that he was used to firing at slightly bigger targets, so he'd have to work on adjusting his aim at some point. For now, he'd just continue to avoid ink fire. While it wouldn't hurt him, it would slowly wear him down, with the strongest shots seemingly about as strong as a professional boxer's haymaker. He could take a lot of hits, but he still needed every advantage he could get, and he'd rather not be stunned.

Another thing he'd was just how far and high the Octolings could propel themselves. With a little space to work with, they kept jumping to all corners of the room. It eliminated his ability to cover himself because a soldier could just jump right over his cover and try to take him out at close range. And sure, while Octarians and Octolings couldn't actually run that fast, super jumps gave them agility that certainly surpassed most people. Plus, they could change forms and swim through ink of their color. So speed and agility were two things Octarians and Octolings definitely had an advantage in.

So while they jumped around the throne room like the House of Pain song (" _Oh, what a terrible reference," Nathan winced internally_ ), Nathan stuck to the outskirts of the fight, avoiding close range fights in favor of providing suppressing fire. His being there as reinforcements was definitely helping the Octolings out, as many of the Octarians were trying to focus on him, leaving his allies openings to attack. Marsh in particular was using Nathan's presence to get off a few direct hits.

The impromptu fight kept going, with Nathan using his being there to help the Octolings slowly gain the upper hand. While they had been outnumbered roughly two to one at the start of the fight, they had managed to either splat or knock out enough enemies to where they had a slight advantage. Miraculously, no one on their side had been splatted yet, although there were a couple that had been incapacitated. But with the numbers game on their side they were sure to win. At least, they were until the Octarians got desperate.

Two of the remaining Octarians, knowing it was a losing battle, busted out a pair of hydro cannons, seemingly out of nowhere. They looked just like splatling guns, except they could fire pressurized water at a long range. "Take cover!" A female Octoling screamed as the cannons went off. It took Nathan a few seconds to remember why this was bad; water was somehow harmful to Octolings.

Well, he could add that to his list of advantages. Humans could definitely take way more punishment when it came to non-human weaponry. Obviously, this included the overpowered water gun. He could probably just take it head on. "I'm gonna make a run for it," he said to Marsh, who was still right by him. "I'm gonna bum rush the cannon."

"What? That's crazy! It'll get you killed!" Marsh responded with a worried tone. He had lowered his weapon to respond, and quickly ducked under a shot of water that came a little too close to his head for comfort. "You can't just sacrifice yourself to play hero."

"Just trust me. I've got this," Nathan said, reloading his pistol and pulling the Dazzler out of his pack for good measure. Then, he stepped out of his cover and made a break for it, sprinting right at the hydro cannons.

He quickly abondoned the outskirts of the fight, both weapons at the ready, and the Octarians grinned, aiming the hydro cannons right at him. He managed to get a few shots off with the revolver, aiming for their torsos and landing some body shots. A few staggered before dropping to the floor, and the Octolings were trying their best to back him up. However, one Octarian caught Nathan off guard, and he fired at him with full force. All Nathan could do was take the hit head on.

The Octolings watched in horror as Nathan took a wide shot of pressurized water directly to the face. It was the second time Persephone had thought that Nathan was going to die.

Well, he just had to defy expectations. The blast knocked him back a few feet, and he dropped to one knee, but he was still alive. With determination, he got to his knees and began moving towards the Octarians, who had now lost their nerve a bit. When they fired again, he managed to avoid the shots and continued his advance, moving his legs quickly. He needed to end this before they hit him again, but he didn't quite want them dead either.

He dropped the pistol in favor of the Dazzler, pointed it at the Octarian manning the cannon, closed his eyes, and pulled the trigger. A bright flash went through the room, temporarily blinding Nathan's target. It was more than enough time for him to pistol whip the poor soul into unconsciousness. The other Octolings quickly left their cover and took care of the rest of the Octarians still standing.

That had ended the fight, and Nathan's adrenaline wore off quickly. As a matter of fact, he was kind of tired, and when he looked around he saw that the other Octolings were tired as well. He slowly strode over to them, a fatigued smile on his face. They all smiled back, happy that none of their own had died.

Persephone, of course, was the first one to speak up. "So, you're immune to water too, huh? You're just full of surprises," she said, mainly out of exasperation. However, he also detected a small hint of fondness in her voice.

"Yeah, I guess that's weird," he joked, before turning to look at the damage that had been done. "Now let's make sure these guys can't try to kill us again." He gestured over to the unconscious Octarians and their lethal weapons to make his point.

One of the captured later claimed that they had all just foiled an assassination attempt on the Queen.

—

It had taken a couple hours, but eventually the group had managed to subdue the captured Octarians. The Queen said that they were probably going to be taken off to be interrogated by someone that worked for her, so that loose end was probably going to tie itself up. " _Good,"_ thought Persephone bitterly. " _Perhaps now we can get back to negotiations."_

Nathan had been so close to fully winning over the Queen when they had been ambushed, in her own throne room no less! They would have to figure out how they had managed to sneak in. Queen Retvi's paranoia had spiked because of it as well; she had also stated that she thought that she would have no choice but to watch her back a little more.

Not to mention she wasn't done talking. Actually, it was almost as if she had planned out a speech specifically for Nathan and the other Octolings in the room, talking about what their next move was going to be. Nathan, as the human diplomat, was probably the only one even trying to pay attention. The other Octolings, Persephone included, were spread across the floor, most of which had been cleaned by a few of the Queen's servants. Some of the Octolings in question had been bored to sleep. " _Simply put, the Queen's speeches are boring,"_ Persephone thought to herself, as the Queen in question droned on and on. Eventually, she decided to listen in to what the Queen had to say.

"...Perhaps they could stay with you for a while," the Queen continued, seemingly talking to Nathan in particular. "They could keep you safe and you could show them your culture."

"Well, that is an interesting proposal," Nathan finally answered. Frankly, he was just glad she was giving him a chance to speak. It seemed that even though she wasn't born into royalty, she had gained their penchant for boring speeches. "I'd have to ask them."

He suddenly clapped his hands, forcing the other Octolings back to attention. Persephone actually snickered at the sight of a group of trained Octolings stumbling to their feet. It was just so out of character for a group of people that were supposed to constantly be on guard. " _Guess that goes to show how bad the Queen is at public speaking,"_ Persephone thought humorously.

"The Queen thinks that it would be a good idea to have you guys live with me," Nathan said. "This seems like a pretty good choice. I can have people watch my back, and you can take part in a culture exchange. You share your culture with me, and I can share with you what humans had to offer. Also, someone back there can translate, so I won't sound weird. What do you think?"

He got general agreements from most of the party, and Persephone said yes almost immediately. It sounded like he was already developing a cult of personality.

"I guess it's decided then. You guys live with me while we translate the plans into Oceanic. I can meet your needs while you stay..." he continued.

An absolute disaster had narrowly been avoided, and the exchange between humans and Octarians was starting off well.

—

 **So, that was chapter four of "From Before". The Queen has ordered the squad of Octolings to stay with Nathan for the time being while the plans for solar panels are being translated into Oceanic.**

 **How was the writing? Did I write out the fight scene and the opening negotiations well? Could it have been better? Did I miss something. Review it and let me know, because I know this story can be better. Anyways, have a good one.**


	6. I'm Sorry

It's rather unfortunate that it's come to this, but as of today, this story can be considered dead. While I like what I was going for when I began to write it, I think that I could probably have done a much better job had I given myself more time between chapters, rather than updating once every three days or so. Having gone back over the story, I've decided that my writing wasn't all too good, so I'm going to give it another shot at a later date.

Thank you to the people who offered me criticism on this work. Hopefully, I'll put it to good use, and make a few plot adjustments in the process.


End file.
